If someone finds the topic that already exists about this subject, please let me know. When having (e.g.) a piccolo doubling flute 3, flute 1 and flute 2 doubling alto flute, so three players, Dorico automatically renames flute 3 into flute 1 because it is above the others in the score. If anyone can give me a solution for this “bug”, I’d be happy to hear it. I know of the possibility to make 5 different players and combine them into 3 layouts, but this workaround causes an incredible amount of extra work in my project. For now, I have forcefully renamed the upper player “Piccolo & Flute 3”, but in the score Dorico keeps naming it Flute 1. I can’t imagine that there is no possibility to rename the parts in the score, as Dorico names itself as professional scoring software after all. I’m not English and don’t want to sound harsh, but I know of no other way to express this. I’m still very happy with Dorico. Therefore, I call it a bug and hope that this will be corrected in the next update. If there is a way to work around this problem, then I’ll be very happy and remove this post! Otherwise, the developers will hopefully read this and put it on their to do list.
Every single score I own works this way, doubling piccolo in flute 2 or 3. And without exception the order of the instruments is the way I want it now.
A “bug” does not mean “it doesn’t do what I want,” nor does it mean “it’s not my fault.”
Yes, you have found a (slightly complex) situation which requires a little more work to manage, and it would be great if the Development Team would create a simple solution to solve; but that is not a bug.
One way to approach the problem you face would be to put each instrument in a separate Player, order the Players as you wish in the score, hide the measures of the inactive Player/instrument, and combine the paired Players/instruments into individual layouts for each performer.
Does that take effort to set up? Yes. Sometimes getting exactly what one wants involves using the features the program offers combined with a creative approach and the setup time required.
Will the Development Team provide a solution to this? Perhaps.
Will it do so in the next program update? Unlikely.
So the problem is: both! I want the piccolo on the top stave, and when the piccolo player mutates to flute, I want it below the other flute 1 and 2, just like in all the scores I own. I see this is an old problem, and I am far from the only one who thinks it should be possible this way. It seems like a case where Dorico wants to make it convenient, wants to think for us. I don’t want Dorico to think for me, and in this case I think the way Dorico does it is just plain wrong, so I call that a bug. I can’t imagine that the developers want it this way. Let’s hope they fix it, and maybe this repeated post will boost the priority. Apart from this I am happy as a baby with Dorico!
Well, if @RoelVanWijk 's feature request would be implemented, the developers will have to think about this. Even if most of the time the player will have sufficient time, some user might want to create a landscape A3 score
Actually @RoelVanWijk’s needs can be met already, by using both a separate piccolo player and the flute3/piccolo holding two instruments. (Though it would need a bit of messing around with the part layout, which would have to combine both players)
If the automatic renumbering could be deactivated that would really help.
I have a score with flute 3 & piccolo 1, flute 4 & piccolo 2 , flute 1 & piccolo 3 and flute 2 & piccolo 4. The last two piccolos only play a few bars but the composer chose these combinations. No way to get this right without manually renaming and some compromises. as this gives problems when you want to condense as manually edited names will show full or abreviated names. So .not flute 1, 2 or a similar merged format but flute 1, flute 2.
I know, it can be done, but I agree with @mavros that deactivating the automatic numbering would help. I’m sorry, I was very tired and frustrated. But still absolutely loving Dorico.
While disabling automatic renumbering would probably help in some situations (like the one @mavros decibed), it would not solve where the staves with their music have to go to.
Currently the music stays on the staff of the player, but you want the staff of flute3 jump to the top of the score when the player switching to Piccolo. I agree with those who say that might be confusing for the conductor, but I’m genuinely interested how your would handle instrument switches mid-system
Thank you for sharing your experiences – we’re aware of the interest in being able to keep doubling players and native instrument changes, whilst having more flexibility over the score order of individual instruments (as in this case of having Flute 3 doubling Piccolo, and wanting the player’s staff to be below Flute 2 when playing flute, but above Flute 1 when playing Piccolo).
As always, we never make promises about when or if we may or may not work on features, but we are at least aware of the request.
